I like old school/kitschy probably more than most but I still don't dig these figures. They are kind of not bad enough to be charming with a real middle of the road kind of mediocre feel to them.

I think mostly though it's the fact that they remind me of Toy Biz X-Men/X-Force figures which was the first line I collected. If I had fond nostalgia for them I might feel different but mostly 90's TB just remind me that I should have spent more money on Mego's and vintage Star Wars instead of Stryfe and Kane figures.

Not hard to hide articulation on Iron Man. Why not reference Silver Surfer or Iron Fist?

Because the comment to which I was responding had nothing to do with articulation. Not sure what's causing the confusion there.

For the record, I think Silver Surfer looks good, and Iron Fist looks stupid no matter how much or little articulation he's given. There's just no way to make that costume look good.

Cantina-Dan wrote:

The world's big enough...

Which is why there really is no reason to take it personally when other people don't share in your enthusiasm, sugarcoat criticism, or end every blatantly subjective statement with, "in my opinion". It's "big enough" for all of us to express our impressions of the toys openly and honestly. If you like the things, then collect them. I see them as pure garbage, which is disappointing, because I'd love to love a 3Â¾" DC line. To steal a word from Beast, though, they do suck, and I'm going to say so. Like Jeff Cope said, however, my trash, your treasure. You think the ankles and torsos on the Marvel line look, "so dang clunky." Whatever, cool. That doesn't hurt my feelings one bit.

In my previous post I was obviously talking about DCIH, the new MU figures look infinitely(har har) better but there are still some bad ones in there:Hulk, Iron Fist, Zartan(oops wrong line):wink:

VC9k

What's wrong with Hulk? He looks fantastic in my eyes.

And I don't see how they could improve Iron Fist. It's more a flaw in the design of his costume than it is in the figure. That's why I've never been a fan of those types of spandexy costume without some details to them. It helps to break up the designs.

Last edited by Beast on Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

I like old school/kitschy probably more than most but I still don't dig these figures. They are kind of not bad enough to be charming with a real middle of the road kind of mediocre feel to them.

Bingo! When you really go through the criticisms of this line from the start (here and on Fwoosh), and you get beyond the "these suck" comments, you see a bunch of people who want a 3 3/4 DC line, but think that what is out so far just doesn't look right (huge hands for example).

For lots of people it's fine if the figures aren't super articulated, but the sculpt needs to have something going for it (the Timm JLU look for example). What is out so far has neither (for the [vast?] majority of people talking on the boards). And based on what I have seen from Marvel's promos, the Hellboy promos, GI Joe, and Star Wars, it's totally possible to do figures at this scale that have great looking sculpts and quite a bit of articulation.

I would like to see some specific examples of current figures at this scale (produced in the last year or two), that look crappy due to the articulation. I agree that articulation can make figures look like crap, and I have a few 6" Marvel Legends that I don't like for that reason. I never collected this scale until the DCIH announcements, and now I have bought a few GI Joe and Star Wars figures and I have been really impressed with how they can work in so much articulation without making them look wonky.

I understand Cantina-Dan's frustration because he likes the look of the current stuff. I'm a little more confused by the people who apparently just want DC figures in this scale so bad that they have decided to like them no matter what they look like. super glossy paints on the mock-ups, fine. better paints on final product, fine too. very minimal articulation, fine. more articulation, fine too. and on and on. But I guess I'm the fool cause I have bought all the DCIH I've seen so far, while hoping that the line would improve (I'm trying to think of a DC line that I wouldn't buy--I'm part of the problem!). Anyway, I'm looking forward to see what they come up with. I just don't think the articulation they add in will make them look worse.

EDIT: after posting I realized this was a thread for the Marvel line. I thought I was reading a thread about DCIH...

And I don't see how they could improve Iron Fist. It's more a flaw in the design of his costume than it is in the figure.

Yeah, he could use a serious wardrobe update. Also, I agree about the Hulk. I think they did a great job with him.

xrmc20 wrote:

after posting I realized this was a thread for the Marvel line. I thought I was reading a thread about DCIH...

With both lines making their debut so close to one another, the comparisons were bound to happen. Personally, if the '09 DCIH figures look good, I'll jump on the line. When it comes to superheroes, I'm a DC fan. If the Marvel figures didn't look so awesome, I wouldn't even be thinking about them. Obviously Mattel felt something was lacking themselves with DCIH if they decided to make a change so early, and if the new stuff looks better, then put me down for a set. I just can't get with the stuff shown so far.

Truth is, I'll end up buying more Marvel figures than DCIH because I'm more of a Marvel fan. I guess its hard to find a line that is perfect in all respects so there will always be some compromises with collecting. Like an art teacher used to tell me: "beauty limps."
And, yes, I can tend to be hyper-sensitive. On top of that I often take the side of the underdog. Anyway, sorry for stirring up dust.
I guess we should just be happy that there are so many 3 3/4 scales lines out now!

I guess we should just be happy that there are so many 3 3/4 scales lines out now!

Yeah, if I was one of these guys who did Marvel Legends, DC Direct, and DCUC, I'd need a lot more square footage than I'm currently occupying for all those 6" figures. More 3Â¾" - and even more JLU - characters are definitely welcome at my place.

As a strong crittic of Hasbro and their general approach to Marvel Legends since day 1, I will admit this scale seems to be a fomat they excel in, but I can't help but wonder why they can do this good with the 3 3/4" items, while doing so poorly on the 6" scale stuff?

Logicly, the 6" stuff should be easier to add detail to and mass produce as such, which only leads me to believe they've been deliberately slacking off on the bigger items so they could have a good excuse to move it to this format, that they are already more familliar with.Never mind that they can now charge as much for these as we used to pay for the 6" items.

The IH line is horrible. Not much competition there.SHSD stuff would have been a great line if it had not been for the extra price hike over the "game" they were made for.

While I personally have no desire to start a smaller scale collection, it looks like this will be my only choice to get any "good" Marvel based action figures. It would be nice if I could shrink my entire collection down to fit this scale, because it would sure be a lot easier to manage!

At any rate, these do look pretty nice.

The main reason these look way better is because it's been reported that a ex-Toy Biz guy is working on them! That alone makes all the difference in the world!! Marvel Universe... I wants!!!

I'm pretty fluent in the Marvel U and I don't remember every one of their characters being freaking aliens! A good number of these things look really ridiculous. And Iron man looks like one of those weird Galactic Heroes figures. Yeah, the Star Wars line is pretty great but these are nothing like it. I've dealt with Hasbro's extreme articulation before and I know that if I want to pose these in any way other then as an androgynous member of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust band then I'm out of luck.

I'm pretty fluent in the Marvel U and I don't remember every one of their characters being freaking aliens! A good number of these things look really ridiculous. And Iron man looks like one of those weird Galactic Heroes figures. Yeah, the Star Wars line is pretty great but these are nothing like it. I've dealt with Hasbro's extreme articulation before and I know that if I want to pose these in any way other then as an androgynous member of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust band then I'm out of luck.

Dude, that may be the worst Spider-Man figure ever. Look at his head! He looks like something that should come with candy. You should have no problem finding him at your drug store checkout. But I can see your point that not liking these figures means I don't know that much about Marvel.

I'm pretty fluent in the Marvel U and I don't remember every one of their characters being freaking aliens! A good number of these things look really ridiculous. And Iron man looks like one of those weird Galactic Heroes figures. Yeah, the Star Wars line is pretty great but these are nothing like it. I've dealt with Hasbro's extreme articulation before and I know that if I want to pose these in any way other then as an androgynous member of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust band then I'm out of luck.

Dude, that may be the worst Spider-Man figure ever. Look at his head! He looks like something that should come with candy. You should have no problem finding him at your drug store checkout. But I can see your point that not liking these figures means I don't know that much about Marvel.

You know... Excuse me for coming off harsh. I shouldn't have done that. However, how can you even attempt to drag these figures into the mud, when if you open any Marvel comic, and look at these figures, the resemblance is spot on?

Of course there has to be some give and take because of issues too great to get into (i.e. molding, mass production, and actual 3 dimensional product. etc.), but for the most part, these figure look great!

Now, I love 3 3/4" scale. I collect SW, Joe... have some Jakks 3 3/4" wrestlers.... Hell, I even have some of the Golden Compass figures, as well as being a Huge 6" Legends collector to boot. Also, I'm a comic nut! When I see DCIH's Captain Marvel, you know what I say to myself. "That doesn't look anything like the Big Red Cheese!" Flash/Reverse Flash... come on dude, you can't even put them in a sprinting position. I can't wait for MU to put out Quicksilver! Then you'll look at someone with speed!

As far as your Spidey comment. If you think about it , it's not really the figure, but the design of the character. No man actually looks like that wearing a mask. Every artist has drawn spidey's head differently. So to me, this fits right into comic cannon. Looks great. And if you can only point out Spidey's head in this amazing figure, or this amazing line, your in for some sad days. Because guys are going to be raving about this line for years to come.

And one more point... Mattel should be ashamed of themselves. I mean really. They put out these figures (whether they're good or bad, that's personal opinion.) Obviously, they were confident about them, and wanted to establish their 3 3/4" world, and not make it like Joe, or SW. Fine! They go on and on about the figures coming out, the selections, and never once commented about the articulation, deco, sculpt, anything. These are DC characters in this unique scale. Then, Hasbro/Marvel drops the bomb on them, sending shockwaves throughout! And after everyone raves about them. After Hasbro shows the 3 3/4" world how it's really done, Mattel basically abandons all confidence they had, flip-flops on the articulation and deco (which by the way will increase the price of IH's), and to cap it all off, say's this will all happen in '09.

My friends, this is either a bold face lie, or it's a move that's very bad for their business! If they make this move, say bye bye to 4.99 figures. Believe that! Also, they'll have to basically re-do the entire line, which is more money, which will incur more cost, which means... bye bye 4.99 figures. And by '09? Really? They would have to be working on these changes before they ever released them. The only reason they said that was because of the "ridiculous alien looking, weird Galactic Hero, androgynous Ziggy Stardust looking, candy store, should be in a drug store checkout, god awful" Marvel Universe figures!! I've never seen a line look so bad, yet make a competitor company change their entire mission, based on things that looked so bad.